The use of video photography has evolved steadily over the past forty years in its application to surveillance situations and environments. Applications include stationary systems such as are found in commercial establishments, and on moving bases such as robots, submarines, vehicles, etc.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,385 to Yee et al discloses a real time remotely controlled robot having a head with a pair of television cameras (eyes) and a pair of microphones (ears) and a pair of arms mounted on a mobile trunk. An operator located at a command center receives audio and visual signals from the robot and, in response, issues commands that control movement of the trunk and arms to perform tasks.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,085 to Pryor discloses an electro-optical system for monitoring the positioning of a movable arm.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,559 to Hawkes et al discloses a robot controlled by a user wherein an audio signal is fed back from the robot to the user regarding force and movement parameters of the robot operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,288 to Glassman et al discloses an image directed robot system for surgical applications including an optical tracking camera supplying data to the controlling processor.
One of the major developments in video photography in recent years has been the panoramic camera. According to this technology a lens with a 360° field of view stores the entire field in memory and various areas are selected and projected according to the interests of the viewer. This technique has many applications, for example, in real estate advertisements where features of the location are selected and enlarged for detailed examination by the viewer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,337 to Glassman et al discloses an omnidirectional visual image detector and processor (incorporation herein by reference). There is described a reflective round lens (either a cone or spherical section) which reflects the object beam from a surrounding field of view (encircling the lens) to a direction parallel to the axis of the rotund lens. The beam then passes through an objective lens and is focused onto a CCD (charge coupled device) where image data is detected and processed for storage or image presentation on a monitor.
In the context of this specification, the term, “visually examine” means that, a narrow field of view is selected covering a few degrees from an entire 360° field of view recorded by a panoramic video camera.